


Dragon Song

by DarkDragonoftheNever



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Dragon AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-17
Updated: 2014-06-17
Packaged: 2018-02-05 01:20:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1800220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkDragonoftheNever/pseuds/DarkDragonoftheNever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The voices of magic sing to those that it has created, leading them to their destined places to fulfill their purpose.</p>
<p>It is just some creature's purposes are more clear than others.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dragon Song

**Author's Note:**

> Why finish one story when I can create another? Updates will be just as sporadic as with The Reaper unfortunately, but hopefully a bit more frequently as this story is more inspired than that one. 
> 
> Enjoy!

A song moved through him, that was the only thing that Gilbert could think of to even describe the feeling that was tearing through his heart, dare he think his soul. There was a song, there was singing far away, he couldn’t make out the words, and he was sure that even if he could, that he wouldn’t understand them. Looking around, the even breathing of his clan all piled into the cavern that they called home, Gilbert knew that it was time. 

His brothers left already, all of them but him. Even the youngest heard the songs that called to all young dragons, the magic that sung through the world that lead them to travel and find their destinies in the wide world that would rather that they not existed. At least some of the other creatures that the same magic had sundered. 

The urge to run grew as Gilbert snuck his way out of the twisted caverns and around large bodies that slept awkwardly on the stone. Even when he reached the exit, in the trees of the forest some of them had chosen to wind up the trunks to rest on the tree tops in case of danger, he wasn’t completely free yet. The scouts would be awakened if something odd happened, well, odd enough to threaten those inside. Gilbert held back the urge to snort, it was a dumb concept to him, but it didn’t matter too much now that he heard the voice of magic itself. It sounded so sweet and longing, he couldn’t help but be in a good mood as he tried to follow it.

Far enough away, or so he thought, he started to run. A few creatures scurried out of his way, smartly as Gilbert was sure that even if a deer stood in front of him, he would just plow right over the creature. The air was bright with the moon that filtered through the tree tops. The wind was picking up, Gilbert looking up at the currents that ran through the branches. Thermals had long since died down with the sun and the cooling earth, but magic never paid logic any heed when it came to things like that. Besides, Gilbert was sure that this was the way that he was meant to find out where his life truly was to begin.  
He didn’t stop until he reached a clearing, and even then, he was surprised at the sudden updraft that forced his wings open and threw him higher into the sky than he ever had been before. Over the clouds that started to cover the night sky, so that the moon shone on him, he could see where he was being led to, sort of. The direction at least looked brighter than the others, south. It was leading him south and east.

A cry reached him, ears flicked back to listen the sound, apparently the scouts realized just what rushed passed them. They could give chase all they wanted, Gilbert was out of their reach now. Destiny had called and he had listened, if he was lucky he would never have to return to the forest for anything again. The clan was not the place for him, ever. The world was at his wingtips and he was determined to succeed anywhere but in these familiar trees and hills.  
\--  
The morning was always the coldest part of the day, no matter what anyone else would try to tell him. Tail useless and dragging on the floor as he walked through his small dwelling, the smell of cooking meats just starting to even rouse him, Ivan stared out at the eastern horizon, hoping for any glimpse of the sun. At least it should be risen before he absolutely before he had to leave. Perhaps even with a little time to bask in the glorious light to get his blood moving before work for the day started. One too many times he had to rely on the fire in his heart and belly to get him moving, today would hopefully be different.  
He didn’t believe his father when the elder said that building a hoard would be hard work, and that Ivan shouldn’t rely on his status alone. It was always during these pre-dawn moments that Ivan cursed himself for listening to the voices, the ones that led him on the long flight south to the warmer climates where his clan had never dared to venture. The sun rose later here, and he was roused earlier to do his work than he would have liked, couldn’t anything wait until after the sun rose? 

The horns in the harbor warned him that the ships would be coming from the night haul soon and that he would have to get to work, do his punches, and then prepare to unload. Cargo was constantly moving back and forth between the world now, at least much more freely than they did in times past. Now that humans and those that they feared were living together in (mostly) cooperation, things were progressing at a nice clip. At least when it came to modernizing the world and slowly making it a smaller place, even though Ivan felt that he would be the only thing close to a European dragon living near these waters. There were plenty of other sorts of dragons at least for company, even if they had odd customs to him, and when they went on a tangent, Ivan knew that he was going to be stuck listening to the conversation all day if he were lucky and all week if he was not. 

Finishing his breakfast, he put on his uniform and made his way down to the docks, a bit less sluggish, but still awaiting the beauty of the sun and the energy it always gave off. Making it just a little bit before the ship was guided to the docks, he looked around him at his fellow coworkers, all varying shades of emerald and a few lighter yellows, most likely from the islands that were around this particular port. Dragons were good for moving things, and were hired for mostly manual labor. They were rarely trusted with anything to deal with money, no matter the type, and rarely could do anything in the meats industry since their hunting was said to ruin hides for skinning and that they were not very good at making accurate cuts. Their size was another deterrent, most grew large, even in their human forms. A 7 foot tall dragon was about average, at least for one less than five centuries old. 

Very few lived in a human city after that age, preferring to find someplace private for their hoard and hunting. 

Yao was one of the few older ones that had lived in the port city for a long time, Ivan suspected when it was founded with the way the dragon knew his way around. He showed his horns unabashedly, the deer-like appendages coming out of his hair just behind his temples, while most dragons chose to hide them. It was bad enough that they all had tails, patience for learning to walk on just the two oddly shaped feet was hard enough with a tail. Without was just torture. Like most of his kind, Yao did not have wings, and Ivan learned to suppress them, no matter how much they ached sometimes while he was at work, to just whisk him away somewhere that perhaps was a bit more agreeable and familiar. At least the elder was an easy dragon to please, that wasn’t so for most of the others who looked at him as a foreigner and much too pale to be working in the sun for such long hours. 

Then again, Ivan was sure that none of them had actually seen snow, except on the distant mountains that were passed by in one of their breaths. If he could handle that, then he could handle a little sun.

“Today’s load will include animals and grains,” Yao shouted as he looked over the list of expected ship contents that one of the crew had dropped off, coming before the guides that would help steer the ship into the harbor. An emerald green tail waved side to side lazily, black tuffs of fur lining the spine and ending in something akin to a lion’s. It often did as he read and walked down the line like this, almost like it was trying to help the elder dragon remember exactly what would be the day’s cargo. Golden eyes scanned the paper, and every once in awhile looking up to meet the gaze of his employees. They were well trained, and he respected most of them, even the foreigner with the odd violet eyes. “They are dropping off these items and picking up supplies for the return trip, which will be loaded as soon as they are unloaded. All this needs to be done by noon. Understood?”

“Yes sir,” the line of dragons shouted in unison. They were like a small army.

“After this ship is gone, we are scheduled to load a small merchant vessel, and by then it will be time to help haul in the day’s fish catch,” Yao said, pacing down the line, going through the papers on the day’s itinerary. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, it rarely ever was. His company dealt with a lot of goods, mostly those that were deemed ‘low security’ rather than the ‘high security’ jobs that humans usually only liked other humans or gryphons to handle, even if humans had a bad habit of stealing from each other. Something not even dragons looked highly upon anymore. 

The line was silent, the groan was not something to let out. Hauling in a day’s catch made one smell of fish for a week, and that meant that they would be doing it all week if they were doing it this early. Ivan mentally counted the days, shouldn’t one of the other teams be on that duty right now? They had just done it two weeks ago. They should have at least another month before they had to do it again! With a twitch of his tail, he made a mental note to figure out how the other team manages to get out of the duty.  
Yao looked behind him, the large ship coming to port just as most of them did, safely and with little incident. The only time problems really turned up was during a raid, that were usually dealt with quickly, or a night accident. Docking was quick and efficient, as was the unloading and reloading. Ivan liked the fact that he was mostly in the sun all day, it gave him the energy to carry the large loads and the stamina to go for the long hours that were required of such work. 

It didn’t pay much, but Ivan was proud of his small but growing hoard that he was able to get by doing such a job. He just wished that there was a way that he could get one of the higher paying ones. Well, besides hiding the obvious fact that he was a dragon. In this day and age, he was surprised at how many dragons were still discriminated against, but there was no helping it. At least when it came to stereotypes. At least he had a dry place to sleep and idle his time, and something to keep him busy during the day. Some weren’t as lucky, he knew.

As the large planks were dropped down, Ivan stood up straighter, and started the mindless task of unloading and then loading up cargo to the carrier. It wasn’t bad weather out, the sun was high and the air had some mugginess to it, as was common to the port areas, the weather could have been dank and cold like the winters that he had weathered as a hatchling. There wasn’t supposed to be anything but fair weather clouds, or so the birds had been saying all day. They did nothing but chatter, but Ivan listened whenever they talked about the weather usually, it was better than hearing about the amazing hoards some of the others were sporting, or whatever inflated their egos. Where Ivan was getting used to the Eastern Dragon’s values, many still did not make sense to him and they long had grown tired of even trying to explain it all to him.

But that was why when a dark shape flew overhead, that he bothered to look up, the others would rather ignore it, focused on themselves and their job.

Silver wings glistened in the sunlight, the dragon call more akin to those that Ivan was accustomed to hearing, and yet different, which meant that this one had also flown quite a way from its homeland. He almost wanted to call back, just to let those that were around him realize that he wasn’t the only one with such a call, that there were others like him, they just didn’t see the point of working so diligently for honor when that could be earned much further down the road. Comfortably even, with a large hoard to help spread influence and satisfy the need. 

“Rogue,” the shout went down the line, snapping Ivan out of his longing to fly and meet whoever this newcomer was. The line was right, the other wasn’t in the socially acceptable form for the city, and that could mean trouble. Most of the homes here were made of wood and not stone. If a dragon was to set fire to one part of the city, a good portion would go up in flames. 

As soon as the guards even got hint of the word, and seeing the unfamiliar dragon crying in the sky, the bells began to ring throughout the docks and the city. Already some warning shots were being fired, flaming arrows soared in the sky, not high enough to hit the beast, but enough to grab its attention. Ivan’s gaze was torn away at Yao’s command for them all to take shelter on the docks, so that a count could be done. They weren’t allowed to go engage, it would put them in the way of the mages if they were needed to take the beast down. Ivan was sure that the dragon, far away from home, most likely needed to be turned in the right direction, although causing all this commotion was a bit much, even to Ivan. Didn’t the other at least know how to transform into a human form? He would get a lot more help that way.

A scream, and a crashing sound was all that alerted any of them of the wave that was coming. It wasn’t destructive by a long shot, the dragon landing in open water, apparently one of the arrows got more than its attention, but a now soaked dragon line was none too pleased. Rocking in the waves, some of the ships scraped loud against the docks, but no lasting damage was done. Ivan didn’t want to think what would happen if something like that happened. This creature was most likely lost, and didn’t deserve a death by mage.

Looking at the dragon, floating on the surface, nursing a wing that looked barely singed by an arrow, Ivan started questioning the other’s age. For one, it was nowhere near full grown, or even old enough to be an adolescent, let alone flying this far away from home. Two silver, narrow horns sprouted from its head, the fur on its body odd for a dragon, at least for the region that Ivan was pinning the other to, and feathered wings weren’t something that a lot of dragon species had; at least not in the areas of the world that he had been to. Graceful head turning, along with two large pointed ears that seemed to rotate with it, Ivan raised a brow. 

Red eyes? What sort of creature was born with such a terrible eye color? Unable to see very well at night and bright light of the day wouldn’t be an easy feat, if the songs were believed to be true. Such an unlucky beast, no wonder it didn’t revert to the more vulnerable form that he was slowly becoming accustomed to himself. Tail twitching, Ivan watched as the other dragon seemed to just float in the sea for a moment before finally swimming away, apparently not bothered by the water, most likely going to look for a more appropriate area to land. 

Count done, they were commanded to go back to work, those in charge of the city would be finding the dragon and most likely determining exactly where to go from there. Ivan almost hoped that he would be able to run into the other later, hopefully getting to know them. It would be nice having another of his own kind around, well, close enough to his own kind anyway.


End file.
